IST Austria's Bickel receives significant New Researcher Award

Expert in facial modeling to be recognized at ACM SIGGRAPH 2017

The Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH) is pleased to announce Bernd Bickel, PhD, of IST Austria, as the 2017 recipient of the Significant New Researcher Award.

Established in 2001 and given to one person annually, the Significant New Researcher Award is a prestigious recognition reserved for early career researchers who have made recent, significant contributions to the field of computer graphics and demonstrated exceptional promise for future achievement.

Selected as this year's winner for his work in computational fabrication and in facial modeling and animation, Bernd Bickel is the 17th recipient of the award in its history.

An Assistant Professor at IST Austria, Bernd's research spans multiple disciplines that include material science, biomechanics, fabrication, and animation. Before starting at IST Austria, Bernd received his master's and PhD from ETH Zurich, and worked as a research scientist at Disney Research Zurich.

Bernd's work on facial modeling has introduced new techniques for rapidly capturing and reproducing facial structure and motion in 3D digital models. His research has also unearthed novel ways of using motion capture to identify and replicate fine facial details such as wrinkles and scars.

"Bernd has made extensive contributions at such an early stage of his career, and we're thrilled to present him with this award," said ACM SIGGRAPH Technical Awards Chair Michael Cohen.

In addition to advances in facial modeling, Bernd has also made core contributions in the design of fabricated objects. His research has focused on modeling the structural and mechanical properties of objects along with their visual appearance, leading to more realistic or deformable materials and objects.

"I feel honored and moved to have been selected for this year's ACM SIGGRAPH award," said Bernd. "Being part of the SIGGRAPH community is a great experience, and I am especially pleased to see both the level of progress that has been achieved in the field of computational fabrication and the recognition this field has received at SIGGRAPH. I want to emphasize that many of my ideas could only thrive with the support and scientific curiosity of this community, as well as the excellent working conditions at IST Austria, Disney Research, and ETH Zurich. "

The Significant New Researcher Award will be presented to Bernd Bickel on July 31, 2017 at the annual SIGGRAPH conference. The award comes with a $1,000 cash prize and an engraved plaque.